Ordnance Journal – Tank and AFV News

From the Vault: Final Drive for Combat Vehicles circa 1921

For those interested in the automotive components of early tanks and AFVs, this article may be of interest. “Final Drive for Combat Vehicles” is from the May-June issue of the Ordnance Journal and it examines the transmissions and final drives that were in service in 1921. Despite the use of the term “combat vehicle” in the article title, the authors seem more interested in artillery tractors than tanks. Having looked through a number of early 1920’s issues of Ordnance Journal, it seems there was much more work and interest shown to artillery tractors and self propelled artillery development than to tanks in the immediate post WW1 era.

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From the Vault: German tanks of World War I

Today we present an article from the 1923 July-August edition of the Journal of the Army Ordnance Association on German Tanks. Authored by R. Kruger, this six page article gives a fairly detailed technical description of the tanks designed by Imperial Germany during the war. In particular, the heavy A7V is examined as well as the A7V -U and the Light LK I and LK II tanks. On the final page of the article is a short piece on “Who invented the tank?” In this piece, it is pointed out that while the British were the first to use tanks in combat, the first patent issued for a tracked fighting machine was given to Gunther Burstyn of Austria in 1912.